Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)One day with the book, and I've made 3 recipes already and shopped for groceries to make several more. It's very encouraging and the 3 dishes I've made have blown me (and my picky housemates) away.
Breakfast: I tried the Anadama Waffles (p. 283). The flavor came out very hearty, wheat-y and otherwise ok. The texture was good and the flavor made a great base for what you typically put on a waffle. So I was happy and I'd make them again, although I might try another recipe before coming back.
Dinner: Corn and Sweet Potato Chowder with Chipotle. Amazing. I don't like veggie soup and I don't like corn chowder. My housemates don't like sweet potato or overly spicy foods in their respective peculiarities. However, we all love this dish so much that we had a little politeness war over who would have priority on the leftovers :) It's sweet and spicy and I'd make it again. This all coming from a household that loves pork pozolle!
Desert: I cheated a little. In his other book (the one with narrative and recipes), there's a nice recipe for fruit sorbet. I used chocolate and black cherry as the base and it turned out fantastic.
About the book in general:
I'm excited about the recipes I see and encouraged because I know they were built for healthy and responsible living. We'll just have to wait and see if we all magically lose weight.
The layout of the book is visually what you would expect. Information for prep time and yield is available and interesting descriptions appear above each recipe to tell you the background or whet your appetite and set your expectations.
The pages are white which makes the text much brighter than his big-red-book. Also, the pages properly lay open, even in the front and back of the book, without the need to hold the thing open (which would be cumbersome while cooking - I only mention it because some books are very good at closing themselves).
The recipes were clear and easy enough to follow as I've come to expect of Bittman. So far the taste has been great although I can't speak for the whole book as I haven't been through all of it!
Drawbacks:
1. No calorie counts. I know, he isn't about calorie counts and it'd have taken a lot of time and money to do that for each of 500 dishes, but I still hoped it would be there. Not a deal breaker.
2. There is no single list of the recipes in the book or each section. Many other cookbooks I own have a list of recipes in the front of the book or each section and this one doesn't which is a little annoying for meal planning purposes. There *are*, however, 3 lists in the back of the book for 'Fast Recipes', 'Make-Ahead Recipes', and 'Recipes for Pantry Staples'. So at least I have those.
I'll continue to cook my way through this and let you know what I find in an update, but right now I'm thrilled with my purchase and would recommend this book to anyone.
UPDATE: I'm adding a couple photos of things I've made so far. Just snaps from my kitchen, so don't expect studio quality ;)
UPDATE 2: Within a week or two I'll probably add more details about other recipes I've tried. It's still going great, but I wanted to add a comparison for reference. Yesterday I was making a recipe from a recent weight watchers cookbook. In the past, I've found their recipes to be light and tasty, though sometimes a little weird. However, after spending a while eating this plant-heavy food, I was honestly a bit sickened when cooking one of the weight watchers cookbook's chicken recipes. It's funny, but I just felt like it had way too much meat, sugar and fat. I guess it's a good thing, but now I'm a little concerned I won't enjoy a juicy steak dinner ;)
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